A Bit of Me(Me): Oh, The Places!

Today, Danielle, who hosts this fun meme over at There's a Book, asks this question:

If you could travel anywhere in the world for 24 hours, where would you go?

Okay, so this 24 hour thing is just too much of a limitation, don't you think? That's like barely long enough to escape to my mountains that are literally five minutes away! But that's not a bad idea, escape to the mountains for 24 hours, just me, my books, maybe some music, and lots of good food!

BUT, if I had a little longer? Here's what I'd do:


If I had TWO WEEKS, there's so many places I'd go. Some that top the list are:

• The Boston area including Cape Code and Plymouth Plantation
• The greater New England area
• Prince Edward Island
• French Canada
• Ohio

If I had ONE MONTH I would travel all over mainland Europe. Wow there's so much I want to see there:

• San Sebastian Spain and visit our family friend who's been begging for years for us to come.
• Paris, just because
• Switzerland, where my great grandpa is from
• Italy, and eat just like Elizabeth Gilbert
• Greece, ancient ruins and Pompeii
• Austria, the Sound of Music of course
• The Netherlands, and the Secret Annex, and where my great grandma is from

If I had a WHOLE SUMMER I would love to spend the whole thing in Great Britain. Here's what I'd do:

• see every castle I can
• breathe the air in Ireland and take tons of pictures
• Camelot ruins, and any other Arthur "sites" I can find
• Loch Ness
• explore the moors
• every literary site I can dream up
• learn London inside and out
• oh man, I guess that's a start. There's so much I can't even remember it all now!

Okay, so I cheated a little (a lot) on this question, but it was fun!

Where would you go? 

Friday the 13th Edition of Random Rambles

So, I keep having the feeling that on Friday's I should post something silly and frivolous (as if my whole blog isn't that already!) but I'm stumped. Should I do random one week and music stuck in my head one week? Should I add TV Talk to the line up? Movie reviews? Or celebrity crushes, or maybe a rant now and then? Hmmm... you tell me. What do you want from me?

Perhaps a little bit of all of it? It is Friday the 13th after all, might as well throw caution to the wind.

Music Stuck in My Head
This one song was seriously going over and over and over, in my head, all night long:



TV Talk

Anyone watch SYTYCD last night? Let's just say, my favorite did NOT win. Oh, well.

Movie Review

The last movie I saw (big screen I'm talking here) was Charlie St. Cloud. Yes, we had to go see the Zac dude. And I really enjoyed it. Nice tear jerking movie. Somewhere I read that critics think Zac has a "monotone" face. Seriously? I think he has wonderful expression. Whatever. It was a nice movie. I loved the sailing scenes. Anyway, if you are a Zac fan, you should see it.



Celebrity Crush

No new ones to report. Just the feeling the fascination for the latest still. Having a little withdrawal symptoms at the moment. Need to find season 3.



Rant

Can they charge any more for college textbooks these days? Seriously. I'm feeling like they just aren't asking for quite enough money yet! Actually, I think we've been pretty lucky so far. JJ is taking a Greek and Roman Lit class and many of those I was able to find from Paperbackswap and good deals on Amazon. Also, we may even get her most expensive psychology book for free from a neighbor. So... let's just say it could be worse.

Random

* Okay, so who was it that unfollowed me and made my nice even follower number back to an ugly uneven one? Hmmmm???

* Utah peeps! Have you RSVP'd yet? Come to the party! Aug. 28!

* They say it's going to cool down around here. I'm ready.

* Only a week and a half and kid #4 starts school. The next week, kid #2 starts. And finally, the next week kid #3 starts. How's that for spreading out the joy?

Books

Yes, I'm reading them.

.......Okay, scary random frivolous silly post over. Have a lovely weekend one and all!

BTT: Evolution

Today's Booking Through Thursday question:


Have your reading choices changed over the years? Or pretty much stayed the same? (And yes, from childhood to adulthood we usually read different things, but some people stick to basically the same kind of book their entire lives, so…)




I haven't done a BTT question in forever, so how about I try it today?

Well, hopefully my reading choices HAVE changed over the years. It would be sad if I ended up just reading the same old same old year in and year out. Don't you think? So how has it changed?

First of all, I used to read WAY more classics. I feel bad that my classic book consumption has been sliding drastically in recent years. So obviously, it's not that I don't want to read them. It's just that they don't seem to be getting the highest priority.

Instead, I seem to be reading much more YA than in years past. I think it's obvious why, because there used to not be this huge overwhelming amount of amazing YA books as there are now. Yes, that genre has changed, and  I've been there to participate.

Years ago, I remember really being into the romantic suspense/mystery novels (like Phyllis Whitney books, etc.) and now nothing I read really fits that category. I was always into fantasy, but lately that seems to have escalated. I used to read way more historical fiction than I do now, and frankly, I miss those.

It makes me wonder what the trend will be ten years from now and how everything will change again. I look forward to the ride!

How has your reading changed over the years?

Weekly Geeks 2010.27: A Cover Study

This week over at the Geeks, Becky has come up with a list of different ways to ponder book covers. Normally, I'm not that into covers. I do, however, love it when people compare similar covers, but I can't ever think of them on my own. BUT, I do love to compare covers of the same book. Awhile back I did this with Jane Eyre for another Weekly Geek assignment, and it was really fun. So today, I want to do that again and compare all the different covers of The Book Thief. Which one is your favorite?

I think those last two are a bit creepy. And the first two, they're okay. But the middle two, I really like. I have no idea what editions all these are from, or where (what country) they are from. I'm clueless and too lazy to look it up. Anyone know?

Want to join the geek party, head on over and link up your post.

Review: Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Book: Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Genre: Memoir
Rating: A
For: Fun
From: I bought it.

Thanks to the movie (which I probably won't even watch until it comes out on DVD) I finally decided to read this book once and for all. I've been avoiding it all these years because I felt like it would be too whiny and too much "woe is me" and "oh my life is so bad so let me just run around the world for a year to fix it" and so on and so on.

Well, so, it was a little bit of that. And I still think that people who read this who may be going through the same thing (I mean how many people suffer terrible divorces all the time?) and see how she solved it, might be thinking, well, lucky you for getting to just run away from it all. Know what I mean?

It was better than I thought though, because all this time I thought she just up and left her husband (whereas it was actually after the divorce mess was all over) and I thought she had kids for some reason too, which I just really couldn't deal with reading about someone who leaves her kids to "find herself" no matter the situation (well, except abuse of course.)

BUT, all that aside, I totally enjoyed this book! First off I loved the writing. I mean, I really really loved it. She totally has a way with making you feel like you are right there with her, and she has an amazing ability with smilies and metaphors and stories and descriptions and everything. Wonderful.

But wait. Does everyone even know what this book is about already? Just in case, it's the author's year long journey for balance in her life following a terrible messy divorce. First, she spends time in Italy learning about pleasure, mostly in the form of eating. Then she goes to spend time in India learning Yoga (not just the stretching poses we all know, but the whole shebang) and then finally she ends up in Bali Indonesia where she hopes to learn how to balance the two and ends up finding love instead (or along with I should say I suppose.)

I really enjoyed her stories about all the people she meets (I could never do that)  and especially what she experiences in Italy and Bali. The Indian/Yoga section was a little over my head and a little too strange for me. I've never understood the whole not talking and sitting still for hours and hours, and how that brings you understanding and spiritualness. Just don't get it.

Anyway, so I was pleasantly surprised. And I'm now curious to hear "the rest of the story" which is in another book if I'm understanding right. And hopefully some day I can be lucky enough to go "find myself" in travelling.

How about you?

Bottom line: I really really enjoyed it!

Here's the movie trailer if you haven't seen it yet:



For more on author Elizabeth Gilbert here's her website.

Other Reviews:

Maw Books Blog
Book Nut
My Fluttering Heart
Book Journey
.... and a gazillion others! (I love how so many reviews say "so I'm probably the last to read this book" and they read it years ago! Yeah, so maybe I'M the last!!)

Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Book: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating: A-
For: Fun
From: The library

This is the story of Meghan Chase. Her life seems fairly normal at first. She's got a quirky friend (that's a boy) and a cute four year old half brother and busy mom and step dad. She's concerned about getting her learner's permit and dealing with the popular girls at school. Yes, all pretty normal.

But then, strange stuff starts to happen. Her brother starts acting weird and she learns he might not be who she thinks he is, and her friend might not be who she thinks he is. And suddenly her world is turned upside down.

Many things in this story reminded me of other books. There's a magic closet door, and a clever smiling cat, and all sorts of strange talking creatures, and mean queens. Oh, and of course the darkly handsome, mysterious yet angry prince!

This book started out great. I felt like it was going to be different and fun. But then in the middle it sort of turned into the same old same old and it drug a little for me. But then, it perked up and felt different again toward the end and had me turning the pages pretty quickly. So I'm a little mixed in my feelings for it, but:

Bottom line: I really quite liked it.

For more about this series (because of course, you know it is a series, right?!) here's it's own website.
For more about author Julie Kagawa check out her official site

Other Reviews:

One Librarian's Book Reviews
Jenn's Bookshelves
The Page Flipper
Sarah's Random Musings

The Sunday Salon: My Own Little Readathon

I've been reading a lot this weekend. So yes, it's been like my own private readathon. So what else is new, right? Isn't this how every weekend is? Well, not always. But it has been especially slow and quiet around here the past couple of weeks. I think it's the calm before the storm of school starting and the lazy summer life being completely turned upside down.

So I must take advantage while I can!

Friday I was completely absorbed by Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and finished that Saturday morning. It was much better than I expected, but I'll let you know all my feelings on it coming up in a real review soon. And that I've got it read, I probably won't even see the movie for awhile. To me, it's more a "rent from Redbox" movie than a "pay for the big screen" sort. What do you think?

Once that was done, I started concentrating on Children of God by Mary Doria Russell. I'm starting to get a feeling what might be happening in this book. Sheesh. And there was a surprise right from the get go that I really enjoyed! Anyway, so I've got a good start on that.

Then last night, and today I couldn't help myself and started reading A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner. That one is a little surprising so far too. Hmmm.... not sure what to think. There's not quite enough Gen in it for me at this point. I'm holding out hope though.

I've gotten back on the treadmill this week too (yes I took a little break okay?) and so that book is currently Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr. Hopefully I'll finish that one this week too.

I've got a lot of spiritual-ish books going on these days. What's up with that? Is someone trying to tell me something?

In between reading, we've been continuing with our Prison Break marathon. We got season two from the library last Monday and every night have watched at least three episodes. Tonight, we have the last two to go. And I'm really nervous about how it will end because we don't have the third season waiting in the wings! This just might be the thing that pushes us over the edge into getting Netflix finally! And I'm also nervous because I heard that, like many TV series, it goes down hill in the final seasons, but oh, well. I'm so hooked I don't care hardly.

So, how's your weekend going?